Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-33017 on 23 April 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Scottish Government has no plans at present to conduct research on levels of payments to kinship carers. Decisions on appropriate levels of support for kinship carers are a matter for local authorities.

The Kinship Care Advice and Information Service provides independent, quality and trusted advice on a range of topics, including the solution of complex benefit issues for kinship carers. Scottish Government seeks feedback on the experiences of advice line users from the Project''s National Advisory Group on which kinship carers are represented. In addition, an independent evaluation in 2009 by MORI of the service found that 94% of clients would recommend it to others.

The £6.2 million grant was provided in 2007-08 to improve the training and development opportunities for both kinship and foster carers. A total of 2,274 kinship and 3,911 foster carers benefited from the funding.

During 2009, 762 kinship carers accessed the advice and information service provided by Citizen Advice Scotland.

There are no plans to amend the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.

Local Authorities are best placed to decide how to achieve the commitment to pay kinship carers an allowance in the context of local needs and priorities and taking account of the carer''s overall financial circumstances.

It is unlikely that Scottish legislation could be used to fully mitigate the impact of benefits legislation, which is reserved to Westminster.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31595 on 4 March 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/apps2/business/pqa/default.aspx.

The level of kinship care payments are the responsibility of local authorities. The Scottish Government recognises progress so far on delivering kinship care payments as making a major and satisfactory contribution to the concordat commitment. The Scottish Government is committed to working with local authorities to ensure that kinship carers receive the support they need.

A commitment to treat kinship carers of looked after children on an equivalent basis to foster carers is set out in the concordat between the Scottish Government and Local Government. Regulation 33 of the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 creates the framework for local authorities to pay foster care and kinship care allowances. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to achieve the commitment in the context of local needs and priorities and taking account of the carer''s overall financial circumstances, which can be affected by the payment of a kinship care allowance.

Guidance to local authorities on the regulations will be published during 2010 to replace earlier interim guidance. Neither of these have the aim of setting the level of allowances for either foster care or kinship care.

Discussions between the Scottish Government and the UK Government resulted in recognition of the issue facing Kinship Carers in the recently published Support for All: the Families and Relationships Green Paper (Cm 7787), presented to House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on 20 January 2010. This includes a proposal to explore with stakeholders the difficulties experienced by family and friends carers and how to help them to access the support they need (paragraph 6.6).

Scottish ministers welcome this and intend to make use of this opportunity to ensure that kinship carers receive the support they need.